Naava Ellenberg is a graduate of Lincoln High School who is attending Barnard College. She wrote this for The Mercury News.

Many 18-year-olds are registered for their first semester of college classes, but very few of them are registered to vote. As adults in a democracy, young people have this great privilege and responsibility, yet very few take advantage of the opportunity. Their disregard is not the result of indifference or immaturity, but of an overwhelming amount of new responsibilities.

The group started with a question.

Paul came to Sacramento as a science and technology fellow, after getting his doctorate in molecular Biology.

His program introduces scientists to the policy-side they may need to accomplish their work, while providing technical experience to legislative offices.

He was placed in Assemblymember Evan Low’s office, who chairs the LGBT Caucus. He became an LGBT consultant for the caucus, a role the prior person left open.

By Scott Herhold

Sometimes it takes criticism from another quarter to make you understand your own beliefs. That’s the way I feel about California’s ban on official travel to states that are seen as hostile to LGBT rights.

When California’s new law went into effect at the beginning of the year, it banned paid travel by state employees to Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee. I saw it as a symbolic move that did not offer much grist for a columnist. The culture wars tire me.